Navigation apparatus for dynamically displaying multiple frames of house number and method thereof

ABSTRACT

A navigation apparatus for dynamically displaying multiple frames of house number and its method. The navigation apparatus comprises a road information temporary storage module, a frame information temporary storage module, a processing module and a display unit. The real-time road information is temporarily stored at the road information temporary storage module; a house number information, a point of interesting or user customized information is temporarily stored at the frame information temporary storage module. Furthermore, the processing module updates the real-time road information and the house number information, the point of interesting or the user customized information corresponding to real-time road information according to a global positioning system signal. The display unit displays real-time road information and plays house number information, the point of interesting or user customized information by turns.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims the benefit of China Patent Application No.201110251257.0, filed on Aug. 29, 2011, in the State IntellectualProperty Office of the People's Republic of China, the disclosure ofwhich is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a navigation apparatus for dynamicallydisplaying multiple frames of house number and the method thereof, andmore particularly to a navigation apparatus for dynamically displayingmultiple frames of house number and the method thereof having functionsof dividing house numbers into a plurality of frames and dynamicallydisplaying these frames without overlapping.

2. Description of the Related Art

A conventional navigation apparatuses usually have functions of key wordsearch, map search or setting point of interesting. A user then setscontent to be displayed, such as road name, house numbers, points ofinteresting or user customized information while using the navigationapparatus.

The maps and house numbers displayed by the conventional navigationapparatus are a set of points corresponding to each road in a space,which contain text description about the house number.

Generally speaking, a road only corresponds to one street name, and thestreet name is drawn on the road while in display. It seldom happensthat one street name overlaps another street name. However, the quantityof house numbers is different from the street name. The quantity ofhouse numbers is quite huge. It will be a mess that displaying all housenumbers in the screen of the navigation apparatus.

With reference to FIG. 1 for a schematic diagram of displayingoverlapped house numbers according to prior art is depicted. As shown inFIG. 1, the navigation apparatus capable of displaying house numbersoverlaps and displays multiple house numbers on the same map screenbased upon the street name. However, the manner of displaying all housenumbers on the screen may not allow the user to easily recognize housenumbers and may easily get lost.

Another technique way is that icons are displayed in connection with thepoint of interesting based upon personal request of a user. However,house numbers and street names must be clearly displayed to avoidunclear marking, such that the user will not have difficulties withreading the navigation information. Therefore, area occupied by housenumbers and street names that are shown on the screen is absolutelylarger than the icons of points of interesting.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of relocating icons of points ofinteresting in prior art. Presently, the manner of displaying the pointsof interesting on the navigation apparatus is that the icons arerelocated while the icons of the points of interesting and the housenumber overlap each other. The positions of many house numbers areshifted from originally accurate location points after relocating theicons. Consequently, the user is unable to recognize the directions asshown in FIG. 2. Moreover, although marking a line between the shiftedlocation point and the originally accurate location point representsorientation, the line is usually drawn on other house numbers.Therefore, the foregoing situation is the same as FIG. 1, and the markedline would overlap house numbers such that the user is difficult torecognize the position and direction.

To overcome the foregoing defects, the invention is related to anavigation apparatus for dynamically displaying multiple frames of housenumber.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the shortcomings of the prior art, the inventor(s) of thepresent invention based on years of experience in the related industryto conduct extensive researches and experiments, and finally developed anavigation apparatus for dynamically displaying multiple frames of housenumber and its method as a principle objective to overcome the problemthat is difficult to recognize position and direction of house number inprior arts.

To achieve the foregoing objective, a navigation apparatus is providedand comprises a road information temporary storage module, a frameinformation temporary storage module, a processing module and a displayunit. The road information temporary storage module temporarily storesreal-time road information. The frame information temporary storagemodule temporarily stores house number information or a point ofinteresting or user customized information. Moreover, the processingmodule updates real-time road information and house number informationor the point of interesting or user customized information correspondingto real-time road information based upon a GPS signal. The display unitdisplays real-time road information and alternately displays housenumber information or the point of interesting or user customizedinformation.

In the navigation apparatus for dynamically displaying multiple framesof house number of the invention, the road information temporary storagemodule temporarily stores real-time road information of an area around auser's current location and temporarily stores house number informationof real-time road information of the area around the user's currentlocation and house number information of real-time road informationabout the house numbers which have been passed by the user.

The processing module comprises a fluctuation unit and a framecalculation unit. The fluctuation unit performs fluctuation calculationbased upon real-time road information and house number information orthe point of interesting or user customized information corresponding toreal-time road information. The frame calculation unit calculates aplurality of frames based upon house number information or the point ofinteresting or user customized information.

To achieve the foregoing objective, a method for dynamically displayingmultiple frames of house number is further provided and applied to anavigation apparatus. Firstly, real-time road information is temporarilystored by a road information temporary storage module, and house numberinformation or a point of interesting or user customized information istemporarily stored by a frame information temporary storage module. Aprocessing module then is utilized to update real-time road informationand house number information or a point of interesting or usercustomized information corresponding to real-time road information basedupon a GPS signal. Finally, the display unit displays real-time roadinformation and alternately displaying door house information or thepoint of interesting or user customized information.

The road information temporary storage module is utilized to temporarilystore real-time road information of the area around the user's currentlocation and to temporarily store house number information of the areaaround the user's current location and house number information aboutthe house numbers which have been passed by the user.

In addition, the processing module has a fluctuation unit and a framecalculation unit The method further comprises the following steps:performing the fluctuation calculation through the fluctuation unitbased upon real-time road information and house number information or apoint of interesting or user customized information corresponding toreal-time road information; and calculating a plurality of framesthrough the frame calculation unit based upon real-time road informationand house number information or a point of interesting or usercustomized information.

The user can divide house number into a plurality of frames, and itsnavigation information is dynamically displayed so as to differ from theprevious broadcast and display manner of searching house numbers duringthe navigation. The invention uses the method of dynamically displayingmultiple frames of house number to overcome the problem that isdifficult to recognize the location and direction of house numbers inprior art.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The detailed structure, operating principle and effects of the presentinvention will now be described in more details hereinafter withreference to the accompanying drawings that show various embodiments ofthe invention as follows.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of overlapping and displaying multiplehouse numbers according to road names in prior art;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of relocating icons of points ofinteresting in prior art;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a navigation apparatus according to a firstembodiment of the invention;

FIG. 4 is a flowchart of the method for dynamically displaying multipleframes of house number according to a first embodiment of the invention;

FIG. 5A to FIG. 5C are schematic diagrams of a navigation apparatus andits method according to the invention;

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a navigation apparatus according to asecond embodiment of the invention; and

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of the method for dynamically displaying multipleframes of house number according to a second embodiment of theinvention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The foregoing and other technical characteristics of the presentinvention will become apparent with the detailed description of thepreferred embodiments and the illustration of the related drawings.

With reference to FIG. 3 for a block diagram of a navigation apparatusin accordance with a first embodiment of the invention is depicted. Thenavigator apparatus 1 comprises a road information temporary storagemodule 11, a frame information temporary storage module 12, a processingmodule 13 and a display unit 14. The road information temporary storagemodule 11 can temporarily store real-time road information 111. Theframe information temporary storage module 12 can temporarily storehouse number information 121 or a point of interesting 122 or usercustomized information 123. The processing module 13 updates real-timeroad information 111 based upon a GPS signal 10 and corresponds to housenumber information 121, the point of interesting 122 or user customizedinformation 123 of real-time road information 111. Moreover, the displayunit 14 displays real-time road information 111 and alternately displayshouse number information 121, the point of interesting 122 or usercustomized information 123.

In the embodiment, the processing module 13 further comprises afluctuation unit 13A and a frame calculation unit 13B. The fluctuationunit 13A performs fluctuation calculation based upon real-time roadinformation 111 and house number information 121, the point ofinteresting 122 or user customized information 123 corresponding toreal-time road information 111. The frame calculation unit 13B performsthe calculation based upon house number information 121, the point ofinteresting 122 or user customized information 123 to compute aplurality of frames.

With reference to FIG. 4 for a flowchart of a method for dynamicallydisplaying multiple frames of house number in accordance with a firstembodiment of the invention is depicted. The method comprises thefollowing steps: step S11: temporarily storing real-time roadinformation through a road information temporary storage module; andstep S12: temporarily storing house number information, a point ofinteresting or user customized information through a frame informationtemporary storage module.

The road information temporary storage module further stores real-timeroad messages of an area or a user's location in the navigationapparatus. It should be noted that the road information temporarystorage module can store house number information of real-time roadinformation associated with the user's location and house numberinformation that has been passed by the user.

In step S13, the processing module is utilized to update real-time roadinformation based upon a GPS signal; in step S14, the processing moduleis used to update house number information, a point of interesting oruser customized information corresponding to real-time road information.

Accordingly, when the navigation apparatus or the user is moving, roadinformation can be updated by real-time road information through theforegoing steps S13 and S14. Moreover, house number information, thepoint of interesting or use customized information can be furtherupdated.

Afterward, step S15 and step S16 are performed, when in step S15, afluctuation calculation is performed based upon real-time roadinformation and house number information, the point of interesting anduser customized information corresponding to real-time road informationthrough the fluctuation unit; in step S16, calculation is performedbased upon house number information, the point of interesting and usercustomized information through the frame calculation unit so as tocalculate a plurality of frames.

It should be noted that the fluctuation unit in the processing modulecan remove road information, which is not updated yet, in real-time roadinformation in the light of house number information corresponding toupdated road information. In addition, a frame calculation unit in theprocessing module can calculate corresponding frames in the light ofupdated road information and corresponding house number information.Therefore, real-time road information capable of corresponding toinformation that is the same as the foregoing information includinghouse number information, the point of interesting or user customizedinformation.

Finally, as shown in step S17, real-time road information is displayedthrough the display unit and house number information, the point ofinteresting or user customized information is alternately displayed.

It should be noted that time interval and manner of informationdisplaying or alternatively displaying are different based upon usersetting. For example, the display module is updated at one-secondinterval based upon the GPS signal. Alternatively, a plurality of framesis dynamically displayed at regular intervals.

According to the first embodiment, the invention further provides asecond embodiment for detail depiction.

With reference to FIG. 5A to FIG. 5C for schematic diagrams of anavigation apparatus and the method thereof in accordance with thesecond embodiment of the invention are depicted. FIG. 5A is a schematicdiagram of a first frame, FIG. 5B is a schematic diagram of a secondframe, and FIG. 5C is a schematic diagram of a third frame.

In the embodiment, the navigation apparatus is at the same position orthe area. The display module displays house numbers of the same area anddisplays the first frame to third frame in a dynamic way. After thethird frame is displayed, the first frame is circularly displayed or themap frames are replaced based upon time intervals set by the user. Oneframe is not continued with one frame. To prevent visual flicker, theeffect of switching slides can be added while switching each frame, forexample the function of fading-in and fading-out in Power point. Theuser can set the time interval of each frame.

With reference to FIG. 6 for a block diagram of a navigation apparatusin accordance with a second embodiment of the invention is depicted. Thenavigation apparatus 2 comprises a road information temporary storagemodule 21, a frame information temporary storage module 22, a processingmodule 23 and a display unit 24.

The road information temporary storage module 21 can temporarily storereal-time road information 211. The frame information temporary storagemodule 22 can temporarily store house number information 221 or a pointof interesting 222 or user customized information 223. The processingmodule 23 updates real-time road information 211 based upon a GPS signal10 and corresponds to house number information 221, the point ofinteresting 222 or user customized information 223 of real-time roadinformation 211. Moreover, the display unit 23 displays real-time roadinformation 211 and alternately displays house number information 221,the point of interesting 222 or user customized information 223.

In the embodiment, the processing module 23 further comprises a framecalculation unit 231. The frame calculation unit 231 performscalculation based upon house number information 221, the point ofinteresting 222 or user customized information 223 so as to calculate aplurality of frames.

FIG. 7 is a flowchart of a method for dynamically displaying multipleframes of house number in accordance with a second embodiment of theinvention. In the embodiment, a navigation apparatus is at the samelocation or area. Please refer to FIG. 7. As shown in step S21 and stepS22. In step S21, real-time road information is temporarily storedthrough a road information temporary storage module; in step S22, housenumber information, a point of interesting or user customizedinformation is temporarily stored through a frame information temporarymodule.

The road information temporary storage module further stores anavigation apparatus or real-time road information about a location oran area where a user or a navigation apparatus is located and storeshouse number information of real-time road information of the user'slocation.

Next, as shown in step S23 and step S24, when in step S23, a processingmodule is utilized to update house number information, the point ofinteresting or user customized information corresponding to real-timeroad information based upon a GPS signal; in step S24, calculation isperformed through the frame calculation unit based upon house numberinformation, the point of interesting or user customized information soas to calculate a plurality of frames.

It should be noted that the frame calculation unit can calculatecorresponding frames according to road information and correspondinghouse number information. Therefore, real-time road information capableof corresponding to information that is the same as the foregoinginformation includes house number information, the point of interestingor user customized information.

Finally, as shown in step S25, real-time road information is displayedand house number information, the point of interesting or usercustomized information is alternately displayed through the displayunit.

The apparatus for dynamically displaying multiple frames of house numberand the method thereof have one or multiple following advantages.

-   -   (1) The navigation apparatus for dynamically displaying multiple        frames of house number and the method thereof are to dynamically        display house numbers in multiple frames of icons which don't        overlap each other, and are every clear and convenient while in        use.    -   (2) The navigation apparatus for dynamically displaying multiple        frames of road house number and the method thereof further        comprise a processing module used to update real-time road        information and house number information, the point of        interesting or user customized information corresponding to        real-time road information based upon the GPS signal.    -   (3) The navigation apparatus for dynamically displaying multiple        frames of road house number and the method further comprises a        display unit for displaying real-time road information and        alternately displaying house number information, the point of        interesting or user customized information.

The invention improves over the prior art and complies with patentapplication requirements, and thus is duly filed for patent application.While the invention has been described by device of specificembodiments, numerous modifications and variations could be made theretoby those generally skilled in the art without departing from the scopeand spirit of the invention set forth in the claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A navigation apparatus comprising: a roadinformation storage module storing at least a real-time roadinformation; a frame information storage module storing at least a housenumber information or a point of interesting or user customizedinformation; a processing module updating the real-time road informationand the house number information or the point of interesting or the usercustomized information corresponding to the real-time road informationbased upon a Global Positioning System signal (GPS), wherein theprocessing module calculates a plurality of frames based upon the housenumber information, the point of interesting or the user customizedinformation, wherein each of the frames has a set of the house numberinformation; and a display unit displaying the real-time roadinformation and alternately displaying the frames.
 2. The navigationapparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein the road information storagemodule stores the real-time road information of an area around a user'scurrent location.
 3. The navigator apparatus as recited in claim 2,wherein the road information storage module stores the house numberinformation of the real-time road information of the area around theuser's current location and the house number information of thereal-time road information about house numbers which have been passed bythe user.
 4. The navigation apparatus as recited in claim 1, wherein theprocessing module comprises a fluctuation unit and a frame calculationunit.
 5. The navigation apparatus as recited in claim 4, wherein thefluctuation unit performs fluctuation calculation based upon thereal-time road information and the house number information or the pointof interesting or the user customized information corresponding to thereal-time road information.
 6. A method for dynamically displayingmultiple frames of house number applied to a navigation apparatus, themethod comprising the following steps: storing at least a real-time roadinformation through a road information storage module; storing a housenumber information or a point of interesting or a user customizedinformation through a frame information storage module; using aprocessing module to update the real-time road information and the housenumber information or the point of interesting or the user customizedinformation corresponding to the real-time road information based upon aGPS signal; calculating a plurality of frames through the processingmodule based upon the real-time road information and the house numberinformation, the point of interesting or the user customizedinformation, wherein each of the frames has a set of the house numberinformation; and displaying the real-time road information andalternately displaying the frames through a display unit.
 7. The methodfor dynamically displaying multiple frames of house number as recited inclaim 6, wherein the processing module comprises a fluctuation unit anda frame calculation unit, and the method further comprises the followingsteps: performing fluctuation calculation through the fluctuation unitbased upon the real-time road information and the house numberinformation or the point of interesting or the user customizedinformation corresponding to the real-time road information.
 8. Themethod for dynamically displaying multiple frames of house number asrecited in claim 6, further comprising the following step: utilizing theroad information storage module to store the real-time road informationof an area around a user's current location.
 9. The method fordynamically displaying multiple frames of house number as recited inclaim 8, wherein the road information storage module stores the housenumber information of the real-time road information of the area aroundthe user's current location and the house number information of thereal-time road information about the house numbers which have beenpassed by the user.